Review of Choiseul village Council holds Former Rep and Village Clerk accountable - Part 2

 We continue to  bring to you that damning report on the  Council

"v. Procurement at council

Under Regulation 11 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations  – Section 54, Finance

(Administration) Act, Chapter 15.01, Revised Laws of St. Lucia, 2005 the Minister for Finance

appointed a Central Tenders Board to evaluate tenders for procurement of goods and services and

sale of public goods.

Further, under Regulation 16 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations, the Director of

Finance appointed a Departmental Tenders Board to perform the functions of the Central Tenders

Board in cases where “the value of goods and services does not exceed $100,000.00.

Further still, Regulation 26 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations – Section 54, Finance

(Administration) Act, Chapter 15.01, Revised Laws of St. Lucia, 2005 stipulated the following:

Works or services not exceeding $20,000 in value, or such greater amount as

the Director of Finance and Planning determines, may be authorized by works

orders signed by any officer authorized to do so by the accounting officer,

without the execution of a written contract.

Page 154 of 190

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

It is noted that at the time of the Review the Director of Finance had raised the amount to

$40,000.00.

We requested from Clerk of Council contracts, works orders and payment certificates in relation

to works projects that were paid from the Council’s bank account for the period under review.

Clerk of Council indicated that she was only in possession of a few works orders. She indicated

that all  contracts,  works orders and payment certificates were issued from the Office of

Parliamentary Representative.

We examined the few works orders and payment certificates that were made available by Clerk of

Council. It was observed that within the Office of Parliamentary Representative there was a Works

Division which managed all contracts, work orders and payment certificates and Parliamentary

Representative, Rufus Bousquet acted as Quantity Surveyor and Authorising Officer on all the

contracts, works orders and payment certificates (see Exhibits 59, 60 and 61).

Further, it was noticed that Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet, sent a request

to Clerk of Council, Williana St. Rose, to pay Sylvester Regis the sum of $20,820.00 for purported

repairs to the Fiette Road. The request from the Parliamentary Representative  was dated 26

November, 2011, a non-working day and two (2) days before the General Elections of 2011.

However, the cheque (BOSL no.000334) that was prepared and issued to Sylvester Regis was

dated 25 November 2011

   This makes it clear that Clerk of Council backdated the cheque to give the impression that payment

was issued on the last working day before the General Elections of 28

we also noted that the said cheque was only presented to the Bank on 12

It must be noted also that Sylvester Regis received the biggest share of works contracts. He

received contracts to the value of $402,330.00.

The above is a clear example of a circumstance where a Clerk of Council allowed herself to be

used by a Parliamentary Representative for the purpose of manipulating the procurement process

in the Constituency (see Exhibit 159)

vi. Payments Not Accounted For

Under Section 2 – Definitions, Finance (Administration) Act, Chapter 15.01, Revised Laws of St.

Lucia, 2005 an “accountable officer” and a “public officer” are described respectively as follows:

“a public officer or accounting officer concerned in or responsible for the

collection, receipts, custody, issues or payment of public monies, stores,

Page 155 of 190

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

stamps, investments, securities, or negotiable instruments, whether the

property of the Government or on deposit with or entrusted to the Government

or to any public officer in his or her official capacity either alone or jointly

with any other public officer or any other person”

“a person holding or acting in any public office”

There were hundreds of  payments made by the Council for works projects but the only

documentation available for verification were documents in connection with payments made from

funds derived from Central Government subventions. Documentation in connection with payments

made from funds derived from Taiwanese grants was not available at the Council’s office for

verification.

Clerk of Council (Mrs St.Rose) indicated that documentation in connection with payments made

from funds derived from Taiwanese grants was managed by the Office of Parliamentary

Representative. According to the Clerk of Council, when payments were to be made, the Former

District Representative would send her the various work orders and contracts for payments, she

would then write the cheques and return all documents and the cheques to the District

Representatives office.

As a consequence, we were unable to ascertain whether payments made from the bank account of

Council for works projects were made to the correct suppliers and in the correct amounts."

Look out for Part 3 on Tuesday